The Costs of Time

The Costs of Time  Mukul Dube

People now live longer than they used to. Much work has been
done on this “greying” of the world’s population, and various
estimates tell us what we might expect. One of the main
practical implications is that together with delayed mortality
comes increased morbidity: that is, there will be an ever
growing number of old people with health problems who are
unable, to different degrees, to care for themselves. We have
been seeing this trend for some years.
In the not so distant past, the joint family was the dominant
form of household organisation. It had the “human resources” to
care for the old. A woman and her daughters-in-law would see to
the day to day running of the household, a widowed or unmarried
sister or daughter might be present, and children of varying
ages could be called upon to help.
The norm today is the nuclear family—a married couple and their
children—in which there is little cushioning. There are few
hands to begin with; and no person has much time to spare, given
that all adults are generally engaged in income-earning work
while the young must struggle to prepare for life in a
competitive world.
The less a person can do for herself, the more she needs a
carer. Those who can do nothing for themselves need full-time
carers. In a middle-class household, the carer is generally
someone employed for the purpose: for no member of the family
can afford to do nothing but care for the aged person. A
parallel is the ayah or nanny employed to look after an infant.
The difference is that infants are not chronically ill or
disabled or enfeebled; and their condition does not deteriorate.
Unless the person so employed is a trained nurse or is at any
rate literate and educated, at least one responsible member of
the family must devote time to the care of the old person. This
is often a great deal of time. In addition, because the person
employed cannot usually be counted on to deal even with routine
medication and minor emergencies, one responsible member of the
family is tied down.
We are already in a world in which people in their late fifties
or older, with not many productive years left to them, can do
little productive work because they must care for an elderly
parent or parents.
The economic and other costs of these realities can be
staggering when we consider their spread and magnitude. One aged
person contributes nothing; another person, of necessity
able-bodied, is occupied by little more than the care of the
first; and a third person is physically tied down and left with
little time and space for  productive work. Many years are expensive.